Article 266: No expenditure can be incurred except with authorization of legis.
Preparation of Budget Document
- Dept. of Economic Affairs (under Ministry of Finance) sends requisition to various depts and ministries asking for their budgetary demands for upcoming financial year
Presentation of budget and discussion
- after tabling, FinMins makes budget speech in HoP
- then presentation in CoS, then general discussion in both houses
- following presented
- Annual Financial Statement
- Demand for Grants
- Appropriation Bill
- Finance Bill
Vote on Account
- tool used by parl to allow exec spend money as per proposal until parl passes budget
- passed before parl goes into break after budget discussion
- taken for 2 months, for 1/6 of estimated expenditure
Committee stage
- during recess, DRSC analyses grant demands in detail and provides their recommendations as a report
- each committee analyses demands
- 31 members (21LS + 10RS)
Post committee discussion in Parl
- after reassembly, demands for grant discussed in detail on basis of DRSC report
- members may suggest cutting demands for grants
- discussion in both houses, but only LS can introduce cuts
Cut motions
- Policy Cut Motion: Complete disapproval. Amt reduced to Re. 1.
- Token Cut Motion: Token of disapproval. Amt cut by Rs. 100
- Economy Cut Motion: Demand reduced by Rs. X.
Appropriation Bill
- introduced as per Article 114
- all demands for grants put in form of an appropriation bill to withdraw money from CFI
Finance Bill
- bill containing taxation proposals presented to Parl
- Article 265: no tax shall be levied except by authority of law
- when finance bill passed, budged deemed passed by Parl
Why parl doesn’t allow demands for grants in detail by itself?
- layman politicians lack technical knowledge
- Parl too big to make effective decision on complicated matters
Grants by Exec to Legis
- Supplementary Grants: provided under 115(1)(a) when funds allocated under budget are insufficient to meet obj during FY
- Additional Grant: need for expenditure upon new service associated with existing service not contemplated in budget
- Excess Grant: money spent over and above grant amt
- Exceptional Grant: expenditure on service not part of any service
- Vote of Credit: amt cannot be contemplated
- eg. Covid-19 measures